Moyes insists no crisis at Everton

Everton have been eliminated from the Carling and UEFA Cups in the last week, but Moyes says: "[Newcastle] is a really important game that we want to win because if we do we will have a similar points total as we had last year.

"From that point of view it will give us the feeling that maybe we can have a season similar to the last one.

"Okay we are out of the cups which is not good but there will always be difficult periods, I have had them before and I am sure I will have them again.

"We have not started as well as we like and we have got reasons rather than excuses for that but I think players are coming back into form and we are getting players back from injury - so there are signs that we are going to play better."

The 2-1 defeat at Standard Liege ended Everton's European dream for this season but Moyes believes he saw enough in his side's performance to fill him with confidence for the Newcastle encounter.

He continued: "The players I have got here are terrific.

"They're really keen, conscientious about their work, disappointed when they don't win and the players are really good.

"They showed a great attitude to try and turn it around [against Standard Liege] and they are trying to make things better.

"I know we got knocked out but I thought they played with more confidence and played better.

"I was more pleased with that performance than any other this season so that is a positive and we need to use that in the Newcastle game and try and get three points from it."